


mistaken for a vision

by perfectlyrose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sickfic, sick!keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 17:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15891132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Keith comes down with a virus and has trouble distinguishing reality from hallucinations as the illness clouds his memories.Set sometime late S1-early S2





	mistaken for a vision

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt: "the moment when reality starts to make sense again"
> 
> thanks to sequencefairy for the read-through and encouragement!

Keith blinks at Allura, suddenly aware that she is staring at him. “Do you need something?” he asks. His voice sounds off to him, but he figures it is just because he hasn’t spoken in a bit.

“I asked for your opinion on the plan,” she says slowly. “Twice.”

His eyebrows draw together. “I must have zoned out.”

He can feel everybody looking at him and it makes his skin crawl.

“Are you feeling okay?” Shiro asks, moving closer.

“Yeah, fine. Must just be a lack of sleep catching up or something,” Keith says.

“Dude, you look terrible,” Lance pipes in.

“Thanks.” His voice is desert-dry. So is his throat, come to think of it -- dry enough that it has started to ache.

Shiro comes closer, peering at his face. Keith scowls at him, not wanting the mother-hen routine he knows is coming.

“Lance is right,” Shiro says. “I think you need to go the infirmary, just to check. If it’s nothing, all you lose is a few minutes.”

“It is nothing,” Keith argues. “I’m fine.”

Shiro crosses his arms and gives him a look. “Prove it.”

“Fine, I’ll go to the infirmary, but I’ll be back in a few minutes to go over the plan again,” he says. He pushes himself out of his seat and manages to take two steps before freezing. The bridge is spinning around him and Keith is fairly sure it doesn’t normally do that.

He can barely hear his teammates voices over the rushing in his ears. They sound concerned, though he’s not sure why, unless the bridge is also spinning for them. That would make sense.

He stumbles straight into a solid form that seems to be waiting for him. He looks up and squints until Shiro’s face comes into focus. The familiar features are etched with worry.

“We’re going to get you to the infirmary and figure out what’s wrong,” Shiro tells him. “I don’t think you can walk.”

Keith wants to argue but the room is still spinning and his stomach clenches at the mere thought of moving. 

Shiro picks him up and slowly heads towards the infirmary. Keith catches a glimpse of Allura leading the way the one time he opens his eyes. The spinning in addition to the movement makes him squeeze his eyes shut again.

“He’s burning up.” Shiro’s voice rumbles through Keith.

“Maybe he has the flu,” Pidge says from somewhere behind them. “Or the space flu. We have presumably encountered a number of unknown viruses that our immune systems would not recognize. It’s surprising none of us have gotten sick before now.”

“Not helping, Pidge,” Hunk cuts in.

Keith thinks the whole team must be following them. He pictures them trailing behind Shiro like ducklings and can’t help letting out a small laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Shiro asks, looking down at him.

“Ducklings,” Keith rasps out.

“Yeah, he’s definitely got space flu,” Lance decides.

Keith tunes out anything else they say until they get to the infirmary. The moment Shiro puts him down on the exam table, Keith starts shivering.

“Space flu sucks,” he mutters.

Coran flutters around him, talking constantly as he runs some sort of diagnostic. Shiro is hovering right behind Coran, the rest of the team huddled not far behind him. The infirmary doesn’t seem to be spinning as much as the bridge but Keith is shaking now. He clenches his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering.

“He has some sort of virus. It is not something I recognize, however,” Coran declares. “Must be something that has developed in the last ten thousand years. Our databases are not up to date with the latest medical developments.”

“Is there anything we can give him? Something to help with the fever?” Shiro asks.

“Painkiller?” Keith croaks out.

Shiro’s gaze sharpens as his rakes his eyes over Keith, as if he can find a physical injury causing him pain. “Where does it hurt?”

“Everywhere? Kinda how flu aches work.”

“His symptoms shouldn’t be accelerating this fast,” Pidge says.

Coran breaks the silence that follows that announcement. “I’m not sure we have anything that is safe for humans that will reduce fever but I will check.”

“Painkiller?” Keith asks again. He knows they have that. All of paladins have needed one at some point or another.

“I’ll get it,” Allura says, turning to prepare the dose. “Do you want to get Keith to his room?”

That last bit is directed at Shiro.

“Do I get a say in this?” Keith mutters.

“You got a say in getting a painkiller,” Allura responds. She holds a small cup to his lips.

Keith glares at her but she doesn’t back down. He takes the cup from her and downs the liquid painkiller without assistance.

No one says anything about the way his hand shakes.

Shiro carrying him back to Keith’s room is a bit of a blur as the dizziness reasserts itself. Shiro sets him down on the bed and gently takes off his shoes before covering him with a blanket.

“Still cold?”

Keith nods, clutching the blanket to his chin.

“I’m going to go find some more blankets, I’ll be right back, alright?”

Keith pulls the covers over his head in response.

He’s asleep before Shiro returns.

\----------------------------------

“So, there’s nothing that we can give him to bring down his fever? It’s dangerous for it to be this high.”

Keith’s eyes flutter open and he bites back a groan. Everything hurts and he’s burning up. Whoever is speaking sounds worried, but he can’t quite place who it is.

“It doesn’t appear that we have anything that is safe for him to take,” another voice says.

There’s a sigh and then the first person speaks again. “Thank you, Coran. I appreciate you trying to help.”

“We’re all worried about him. Has he woken at all?”

Keith stays still. He wants to hear more of this conversation.

“No. Not since he first fell asleep. It’s been about a varga.”

“I’ll update the team.”

The door slides open and then closes again. Keith kicks at the covers, unable to stand the heat any longer.

“Keith?”

Keith’s eyes are already getting heavy again as he hears whoever is in the room move closer. He catches a glimpse of them as they lean over him.

“Shiro.” His name slips off Keith’s tongue like a prayer as he slips back into unconsciousness.

\----------------------------------

Shiro stares down at Keith, taking in the unnatural flush over his cheeks. He’d seen the flash of wonder paired with recognition in Keith’s eyes when he’d woken briefly and he doesn’t know what to make of it. He’s glad Keith is still coherent enough to recognize him but the surprise on his face makes him wonder where Keith’s mind is.

The door swishes open, revealing Pidge and Hunk.

“Coran said he still hasn’t woken up,” Pidge says as they step into Keith’s spartan room. 

“He did for a moment, right after Coran left.”

“How was he?”

“Not very coherent. He recognized me, but…” Shiro pauses, trying to figure out how to articulate the sensation.

“But?” Hunk prompts.

“He seemed off. It was like he was surprised to see me.”

“How high is his fever?” Pidge asks.

Shiro motions towards Keith and Pidge steps forward to lay her hand on her teammate’s forehead. She snatches it back immediately.

“Holy quiznak,” she breathes. She turns wide eyes on Shiro, worry painted on her face. “His fever is way too high.”

“I know,” Shiro says. He hears his own helplessness in his voice and he hates it. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Ice bath?” Hunk suggests. “It’s what my grandma always suggests when someone is feverish. We don’t usually listen to her because we have medicine for that but…”

“But we don’t have medicine now,” Shiro says. “It will at least get his temperature down for a bit. Pidge, would you go ask Allura or Coran where we can get an ice bath set up?”

“On it,” she says. She leaves the room at a run. 

Hunk lingers, worry etched into every line of his face as he watches Keith sleep, making him look older than his seventeen years. “Is he going to be okay?”

The easy words stick in Shiro’s throat. He wants to tell Hunk that Keith will absolutely be okay, that there’s nothing to worry about. He wants to believe it himself.

“I don’t know,” he says finally. His own words feel like a punch in the gut and he sees Hunk recoil as well. Everyone always expects him to know. They look to him for answers. In this situation, they are answers he doesn’t have,and he can’t lie and say that he does. Not when Keith is at stake.

“I hope so,” he continues, eyes glued to the oddly still form on the bed. “I really hope so.”

The words linger in the heavy silence of the room until Pidge comes back to show them the way to where Allura was setting up an ice bath.

\----------------------------------

Keith wakes up with a strangled scream as he is lowered into freezing cold water.

“I’m sorry, but we have to get your fever down, Keith.”

Keith opens his eyes and the fight goes out of him abruptly as he latches onto Shiro’s face. The world around him is a bit hazy, a bit wobbly, but Shiro is in focus.

“Are you real?”

Keith thinks Shiro’s laugh is ripped out of him by sheer surprise.

“Yeah, I’m real, Keith.”

Keith squints at him, shivering as the icy water laps at his skin. He’s not sure whether to believe Shiro. He’s too sharp, too present. There’s a thought nagging at the edges of his mind that it’s impossible for Shiro to be here because Shiro is  _ gone _ .

Even if he wasn’t, there was no way he would be in the room while Keith was in a bath. This has to be a hallucination from whatever is causing the world to be blurry and his head to be full of cotton.

“Okay,” he says, sinking further into the water. If he is going to hallucinate Shiro, he might as well go with it. There are much worse things his mind could conjure.

“How are you feeling?” Shiro asks.

“Cold.”

“Other than that. Do you need another dose of painkiller?”

Keith shrugs. “Cold is pretty much the only thing I feel. My head is…” He trails off.

“Your head is what?” Now Shiro’s voice is sharp too.

“Cloudy?”

“Cloudy.” Shiro rubs at the back of his neck as he considers this. “Do you remember where you are?”

“In a bathtub, apparently.”

“How are you still this impossible when you’re sick enough to be in an ice bath?” Shiro asks with a sigh.

“Natural talent?” Keith says. He tries to smirk but isn’t sure that he manages anything other than a grimace.

Someone knocks at the door before Shiro formulates a response to that.

“Shiro, only let him stay in there for another couple of minutes,” an accented female voice calls. “Pidge has been doing research so we know what to do.”

“Thank you, Allura.”

Keith stares, the thought that whoever Allura was shouldn’t know that Shiro was in here reverberating through his brain. Shiro is a hallucination. Hallucinations shouldn’t interact with other people.

“Keith? Are you alright?”

He sits up straight, water sloshing around him. His body screams at him from the sudden movement despite the numbing effect of the water. His head pounds ceaselessly.

“You’re real. You’re here,” he breathes.

Shiro’s brows draw together. “Yes. We talked about this.”

Keith shakes his head.

“Do you not remember?” Shiro asks slowly.

“I remember,” Keith croaks. “I just thought…”

“What? Why do you think I’m not real?”

Keith just shakes his head again. At least he knows the pain that the motion causes is real.

His vision turns black at the edges.

“Keith!” 

He can hear the worry lacing Shiro’s voice but he slides back into the darkness, not sure what is real except the pain.

\----------------------------------

Shiro tries to sort through Keith’s actions while in the bath as he changes into dry clothes. Lance is keeping an eye on Keith for the few minutes it will take for Shiro to change.

Both times Keith has awoken, he’s seemed surprised to see Shiro. He keeps going back to Keith asking if he was real, dissecting the disbelieving tone and the hope that had shone out of his dark eyes.

Shiro bites his lip as he pulls a shirt over his head. The obvious answer is that Keith thinks Shiro is a hallucination, but Shiro doesn’t know  _ why _ . 

He hurries back down the corridor to Keith’s room. Lance is sitting in a chair a few feet from the bed, watching his friend with a seriousness Shiro isn’t accustomed to seeing on his face.

“He’s barely twitched since you left,” Lance says, not looking away from Keith.

“Thank you for watching him.”

“This isn’t a normal sickness, is it?” Lance asks, shifting to look Shiro in the eyes. “Between how worried you are and the way Hunk is pretending not to freak out and Pidge burying herself in research so she can try to feel useful… this has to be really bad, right?”

“It’s bad,” Shiro says. Lance flinches. “We just don’t know what this is or what it’s doing to Keith.”

“Besides giving him a high grade fever and knocking him unconscious for hours at a time?”

“Yes. He…” Shiro pushes a hand through his hair. “He doesn’t quite seem like himself when he’s awake.”

“What does that mean?”

Shiro considers for a moment, moving to stand closer to Keith’s bed. Lance’s eyes track him intently. “He keeps being surprised that I’m here. He asked me if I was real. Twice.”

Lance’s mouth presses into a hard line.

He speaks after a few moments of charged silence. “You know he dropped out of the Garrison after the news about the Kerberos mission failure broke, right?”

“Yeah. Keith said something about it and the rest of you have alluded to it a few times.”

“Did you know he got into a shouting fight with one of the instructors about how it couldn’t have been pilot error? That they had to be wrong? He threw a punch at him and then took off on a hoverbike into the desert before they could decide whether to expel him. Until we met up while breaking you out, no one knew what had happened to him.”

This information makes Shiro’s stomach bottom out. He hadn’t thought about the timing of Keith’s departure from the Garrison, hadn’t considered that it had anything to do with him being presumed dead.

“Yeah,” Lance says, reading the look on Shiro’s face. “Everyone kept implying that you and the rest of the crew were dead. Even the people with the most hope started to lose faith.”

“What are you getting at, Lance?”

“Keith might not remember that we saved you with whatever the fever is doing to scramble his brain or whatever. Maybe he still thinks you’re dead or lost in space and that’s why he keeps asking if you’re real.”

Shiro thinks back to Keith’s evasive answer as to where he was, the way he obviously thought Shiro was a hallucination. “You may be onto something.”

“It happens occasionally,” Lance says with a shrug and the briefest of smirks. He stands. “Let us know if anything changes or you need anything.”

“I will. Thank you, Lance.”

Lance just lifts a hand in acknowledgement as he walks out the door.

Shiro takes the chair and settles in for a long evening. Lance has given him a lot to think about.

\----------------------------------

Keith wakes with a howl in his throat. He is on fire; his very bones are screaming at him. Nebulous shapes dance on the back of his eyelids and he can’t escape their ominous looming. 

He is struggling against the blankets with wild motions when someone sets a hand on his shoulder. He growls, trying to jerk away, but whoever is with him is strong and keeps him flat against the bed. Keith kicks, trying to rid himself of blankets.

The blankets are pulled off him and he finally makes out words being spoken over the rush of blood in his ears.

“Keith. Keith, it’s okay. You’re safe.”

“Burning,” Keith rasps out, every syllable scratching his throat. “Everything’s burning.”

“I’m going to get you some water, alright?”

The pressure on his shoulder disappears and Keith pushes himself up until his back is against the headboard. He pants from the effort and his arms shake from the exertion. He keeps his eyes shut still, half convinced that the world he would see with his eyes open will be more terrifying than these ominous shapes.

The door swishes open and Keith hears water being poured into a cup. It’s held up to his mouth and he opens his mouth, energy too depleted from sitting up to try and take the cup himself. Water trickles down his throat, a cold river of relief.

He drinks until the cup was empty.

“Do you want more?”

Keith shakes his head. He hears his caretaker set the cup down somewhere and then a hand rests lightly on his shoulder.

“Can you open your eyes, Keith?” The voice is soft, concerned.

It registers as  _ safe _ to Keith.

Keith takes a deep breath and braces himself before forcing his eyes open. The world is a confusing blur of colors, worse than the muted version from when his eyes were closed. His eyes take a few moments to focus.

A face emerges from the chaos -- square jaw, dark eyes, a scar across the nose, and a shock of startling white hair falling over his forehead. Something about him is off but Keith’s breath still leaves his lungs in a painful rush as he recognizes his caretaker.

“Shiro.” The single word is strangled out of his throat.

Shiro’s mouth quirks up in a small, sad smile. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“Not real,” Keith says, but he doesn’t move away from the contact of Shiro’s hand on his shoulder.

“I am real, Keith. I promise.”

“No. You’re gone.” His voice cracks on the last word.

“I came back,” Shiro says, squeezing Keith’s shoulder slightly. “I came back and then you saved me.”

Keith shakes his head. None of this makes sense and it feels like his heart is in a vise.

“You did.”

“No. You’re lying.” He has to be lying because Keith remembers nothing but the crushing weight of the knowledge that Shiro was lost in space on a failed mission.

He closes his eyes again. The terrifying visions still playing in the darkness are less painful than the false vision of a slightly altered Shiro telling him what he wants to hear, telling him lies.

Shiro’s voice is quiet when he speaks again, sad. “Get some rest, Keith. You’ll feel better soon.”

Keith thinks he feels Shiro brush his hair back from his face as he drifts back into the darkness, but he knows it’s just wishful thinking, just like Shiro being back safe.

\----------------------------------

Shiro buries his face in his hands once he’s sure Keith is asleep again. The devastation in Keith’s voice as he accused him of lying echoes him in the quiet room. He knows it will haunt him for days to come.

He takes a deep breath and then another, trying to clear his head. His chest roils with unnameable emotions and it feels like there’s a weight sitting there, making it hard to breathe. 

The door slides open and Allura steps inside the room. Her eyes widen as her gaze lands on Shiro. “Shiro? Are you okay? You’re not getting sick too, are you?”

Shiro straightens in his chair. “No, Princess, I’m just…” he pauses, searching for the right word. He settles on, “I’m tired.”

“You should get some rest. One of us can sit with Keith for a bit.”

Shiro shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Allura crosses her arms. “Why not?”

“Keith seems to not remember the events that led him to being here and being a Paladin. I think it would confuse him if he woke up to someone he didn’t recognize.”

“Didn’t he know the other Paladins before, as well?”

“He kind of knew Lance. Hunk less so, and Pidge not at all. But Keith and I…” he struggles for words again. “We were friends, before all of this.”

Shiro tries not to think that Keith seeing him and being incredulous about his presence every time might be as disorienting as him waking up to a relative stranger. He’s not leaving until Keith is better.

Allura steps forward and puts a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t take care of him if you’re exhausted, Shiro.”

“I’m fine. I think Keith’s fever is starting to go down, as well. It’s still high but not as high as it was. I’m hopeful that he’s on the mend, now.”

She drops her hand and looks over at Keith. He’s still propped up against his pillows and the blankets are in a heap at the foot of the bed. The sweatpants they borrowed from Lance are cinched loosely around his waist and his chest is bare. His hair is lank but his color is better than it was earlier.

“I hope so,” Allura says softly. “I’ll have Hunk bring you some food.”

“Thank you, Allura.”

She leaves and Shiro is left alone with his thoughts again. He keeps circling around the look in Keith’s eyes every time he recognizes him -- that hope and disbelief that fades into resignation. It’s a blow straight to the sternum every time Keith decides he isn’t real but he can’t even begin to imagine how it feels for Keith.

Maybe he should let someone else look after him, someone who wouldn’t cause such a reaction.

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice is gravelly and quiet.

Shiro looks up, surprised he’s awake again so soon. “I’m here. What do you need?”

Keith turns his head and focuses bleary eyes on Shiro. “Just seeing if you were still here.”

“I’m here,” he repeats. “Not going to leave you alone until you’re better.”

“Good.” Keith’s eyes slip closed again and his breathing evened out, indicating that he was asleep once more.

Shiro has no idea if that was a lucid moment or if Keith was just comforted by having what he thought was a hallucination of Shiro there. Either way, there is no way he is going to let anyone else take over for him now. 

When Hunk shows up with food, Shiro trades a few words with him, thanking him and letting him know that Keith is starting to look better. Hunk doesn’t stay long but he promises to update the others.

Shiro eats and waits for Keith’s next moment of wakefulness.

\----------------------------------

Keith wakes slowly, coming to with a groan as his muscles protest every slight movement.

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice is some mixture of weary and hopeful, like he’s had this exchange several times already to no avail.

“Shiro, why does it feel like I’ve been stepped on by one of the lions?”

Shiro chuckles and Keith opens his eyes to see relief painted across his face. “You’ve been sick. Do you remember where you are?”

“The Castle of Lions, I assume.”

“Do you remember the last couple of days?” Shiro sounds oddly hesitant.

Keith racks his brain. Blurry impressions of confusing conversations with Shiro start forming. Something that he hadn’t realized was loose settles into place in his chest.

“I thought I was imagining you,” Keith says finally. He looks at Shiro, eyes wide. “I thought you were a hallucination.”

“I know.” 

Keith yawns. “How can I be tired when I’ve been sleeping for… how long did you say?”

“A couple of days. You’ve been sleeping most of that time.”

“Why am I still tired?” He knows he sounds whiny but can’t bring himself to care.

“You’re still healing. Sleep helps with that.” Shiro smiles. “Pidge gave me a whole lecture on it a few hours ago, actually. I think she was trying to guilt me into sleeping as much as reassure everyone that you weren’t in a coma.”

“Sounds like Pidge,” Keith says.

“Go to sleep, Keith. I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

“I’m really glad you’re not a hallucination,” he mumbles, already half asleep.

Shiro reaches over and briefly squeezes his shoulder in response.

Keith falls asleep with a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, content that his shifting conception of reality has finally settled back into something that makes sense. Shiro is alive and here and Keith’s world is at rights again.

Shiro watches as Keith settles back into sleep, more peaceful than he’s seen this entire time. He feels lighter himself, like his world had been tilted to one side and has now suddenly righted itself. He brushes Keith’s hair out of his face. Keith seems to lean into his touch in his sleep and Shiro draws back, not wanting to disturb his rest.

Shiro shakes his head at himself, smile on his face and settles in to wait, either for Keith to wake or for someone to come check on them so he can tell them the good news.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [stop dreaming (the break of day remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19146844) by [springofviolets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/springofviolets/pseuds/springofviolets)




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